A journal dedicated to truth, freedom of speech and radical spiritual consciousness. Our mission is the liberation of men and women from oppression, violence and abuse of any kind, interpersonal, political, religious, economic, psychosexual. We believe as Fidel Castro said, "The weapon of today is not guns but consciousness."

Thursday, December 11, 2014

On Saturday PEN Oakland’s 24th annual book awards
honored eight writers for their literary excellence. The annual awards
ceremony recognizes authors from across the country for their books
published during the previous year. The ceremony was held at the Oakland
Public Library’s Rockridge branch and drew several dozen members of the
public. In addition to acceptance speeches, authors read excerpts of
their work and signed books for fans.

“Our mission is to promote works of high quality literature written
by writers of all races, nationalities, classes, marginalized people and
points of view that don’t get recognized by the mainstream,” said John
Curl, Chairman of PEN Oakland, a nonprofit organization that’s been
supporting and recognizing writers since 1989. PEN Oakland – which
stands for poets, essayists and novelists – is an offshoot of the larger
and older PEN USA, which supports mainstream writers, many in the
entertainment industry.

Oakland resident Nina Serrano received an award for her book Heart Strong, a collection of poems that chronicle her life from 2000 through 2012. “It was my experience of the 21st Century,”
she said during a book signing reception after receiving her award. “A
20th Century person, essentially, born in 1934, experiencing the 21st Century.”
The poems are about everything from war and urban life to relationships
and heartbreaks, and they accompany paintings and photographs by
Serrano’s artist friends.

In accepting her speech, Serrano read one of her book’s poems, “Black
Lives Matter.” It’s a reflection on the many protests she’s witnessed
while living in the Bay Area. “Black lives matter. It’s ridiculous to
have to state. It’s so obvious because all life matters and is sacred,”
she recited.
Serrano isn’t the only author whose work addressed social issues like
racial tensions. Los Angeles native Akinyele Umoja, a professor of
African American studies at Georgia State University, was honored for
his book We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement.
The book is a historical narrative about southern blacks in the 1950s,
’60s and ’70s, using armed defense to challenge racism, terrorism and
segregation and acquire legal rights and political power.
In it, he tells the story of an 86-year old grandmother who offered
her farm as an organizing base for young southern blacks fighting to
vote. One day, a group of these young people were prevented from
registering to vote at the county courthouse by white supremacists who
terrorized and followed them all the way back to the farm. “But this
elder came up with a plan,” said Umoja. The grandmother, he said,
supplied the young organizers with shotguns and rifles to defend
themselves.

Umoja related the past struggles he writes about in his book to the
ongoing racial tensions happening now in Ferguson, Missouri and other
cities over police violence against young African American men. “We’re
at the beginning of a new movement,” he said, calling the protests over
the Michael Brown shooting a creative use of nonviolent direct action.
“We must assert our right to defend ourselves,” said Umoja.

PEN Oakland’s Lifetime Achievement Award went to Askia M. Toure, a
prominent poet and political editor. Toure was leader of the Black Arts
Movement of the 1960s that encouraged African Americans to
launch publishing houses, publish magazines, and open art institutions,
and resulted in many African American Studies programs at universities.
At this year’s ceremony, Toure was honored for his contributions to the
Black Arts Movement’s community and literature. “It was an honor and as a
writer and activist, it definitely was a crown jewel of my career,” he
said, referring to the PEN award. In addition to writing for several
publications, Toure was editor of the Journal of Black Poetry and Black Dialogue and in 1965 he founded Afro World.
In 1967, Toure joined the staff of San Francisco State Univerisity
where he taught African American studies. He is currently working on a
film about the Black Arts Movement.

Other works honored at the ceremony include Hotel Juarez: Stories, Loops and Rooms
by Daniel Chacon. Chacon’s book is a collection of short stories and
flash fiction – very brief narratives, usually only a few hundred words –
­and deals with issues of identity and human interaction. Claudia
Moreno Pisano was honored for her book, Amiri Baraka and Edward Dorn: The Collected Letters,
a compilation of personal letters written between avant-garde poets
Amiri Baraka and Edward Dorn, who had an interracial friendship during
the Civil Rights Movement era.

In all, eight writers were honored at the annual ceremony, but not
all of them were present to accept their awards. Curl said that as long
as unconventional views and ideas are ignored by the mainstream media,
PEN Oakland will continue to celebrate diversity. “We’ve been doing this
for 25 years and the mainstream certainly hasn’t budged,” said Curl.
“We’ve become a significant force in terms of writers who are really
important but are not recognized by the mainstream.”By Alex Kekauoha

2 comments:

This is the mind set of white supremacy today and yesteryear,its not changed one iota in time,this is the white manifesto in staccato. If you doubt my word let me suggest you read more. I can only educate you to a certain degree the rest you must experience with your own eyes and mind. A teacher is free to reach so far into the psyche of a student. This has been an orchestrated sycophantic historic journey in my analysis of "europeeon" society They dominate the world and why is this ? They have ruled as terrorist for centuries on continents through violence,corruption and lets not forget genocide.

They have maintained power through unity, a most important component in transferring power. We understand power is generational same as wealth and by the same token so is poverty. The elite white Klan never integrates the power must remain whites only, this is the collective unspoken in white society its understood. Ever ask your self why is the British royal family treated like 'gods by the mainstreem media, they travel to the US and automatically meet the president of the US. Why are they so significant. When you put them in historic context they murdered more people than Stain ,Hit ler combined a 100 times,and we're asked to respect a lineage of barbarism and call them royal, they hail from a lineage of "europeeon" scum who've murdered 100's of millions of Africans over centuries of genocide. The royal jewels are all ill gotten stolen diamonds and gold from Africa and many parts of the world. Why are these people given this god like treatment who are responsible for many of the problems we have today globall?y

About Me

Truth will not make you rich, but it will make you free.--Francis Bacon

Marvin has been ignored and silenced,like Malcolm would be ignored and silenced if he had lived on into the Now. He's one of the most extraordinary, exciting black intellectuals living today --Rudolph Lewis, Chickenbones.